This original immersive adaptation was created site-specifically for St. John’s Lutheran Church in Atlanta. Just 40 audience members at a time traveled throughout the entire church campus on a journey into the novel led by its author, Mary Shelley. The one-of-a-kind experience combined Mary Shelley’s text, original live music, dance, interactive props, magic, special effects and holograms into what one reviewer called “the story of innocence and its corruption.”

Produced by Found Stages at St. John’s Lutheran Church, Atlanta

Concept & Direction by Nichole Palmietto
Written by Neeley Gossett, Annie Harrison Elliott, Addae Moon & Nichole Palmietto
Original Compositions, Music Direction & Live Music by Chris Gravely
Choreography by Angela Harris
Fight Choreography by Amelia Fischer & Connor Hammond
Costumes & French Consultancy by Jennifer Schottstaedt
Lighting Design by Charles Swift
Set Design by Chrissy Culver
Props & Special Effects Design by Josh Marsh
Graphic Design by Christopher Fairchild
Magic Consultancy by Matt Baum
Stage Management by Bonnie Devon Smith

Cast: Jake Krakovsky, Dane LeAnna, Erika Miranda, Joseph Jong Pendergrast, Michelle Pokopac & Jennifer Schottstaedt

Photos by Casey Gardner Photography
Recap Video by Gaslight Picturehouse
Promo Video by Josh Marsh
Poster by Brad Fairchild

Part fabulous party, part theatrical play, Frankenstein’s Ball immerses audiences in the real world drama of Mary Shelley and her contemporaries. In the midst of writing her yet-to-be-famous novel, Mary arrives at Lord Byron’s New Year’s Eve Ball looking for inspiration, only to be haunted by the imaginary characters she invented. Through games, dancing, and a couple of poetry battles, the audience helps Mary see beyond her worries to find her ending for Frankenstein.
Produced by Found Stages at The Highland Inn & Ballroom Lounge, Atlanta

Concept & Direction by Nichole Palmietto
Written by Neeley Gossett, Annie Harrison Elliott, Addae Moon & Nichole Palmietto
Original Compositions & Music Direction by Chris Gravely
Choreography by Angela Harris
Fight Choreography by Caitlin Hargraves
Costume Design by Jennifer Schottstaedt
Costume Construction by Elizabeth Nugent
Lighting Design by Charles Swift
Props Design by Jillian Haughey
Graphic Design by Christopher Fairchild
Sound Engineering by Anthony Majors
Stage Management by Sharon Estela

Cast: Patty de la Garza, Greg Hunter, Emily Kleypas, Bekah Medford, Joseph Jong Pendergrast, Lau’rie Roach, Brandy Sexton, Melanie Sheahan, Michael Vine, Ryan Vo, Markell W. Williams

Live Band: Alana Bennett, Rogelio Bonilla, Allison Emata, Chris Gravely, Tramaine Jones, Ricky Saucedo, Moe Winograd, Jennifer Zuiff

Photos by Casey Gardner Photography
Videos by Gaslight Picturehouse
Posters by Christopher Fairchild

Two annual series of new plays by Atlanta playwrights were presented at Dunwoody Nature Center. Professional actors brought to life the characters of the plays - a new one each month between summer and fall - amidst the backdrop of nature.

Plays by Margaret Baldwin, Phillip DePoy, Edith Freni, Gabrielle Fulton Ponder, Neeley Gossett, Mark Kendall, Annie Harrison Elliott, Jiréh Breon Holder, Addae Moon, Lee Nowell & Lee Osorio

Produced & Directed by Nichole Palmietto

Photos by Casey Gardner Photography & Hannah Lake Photography

Neeley Gossett's Beulah Creek takes place during the summer of 1936 amidst a Baptist camp meeting in South Georgia. When the pastor’s wife Ruth meets Iris, the WPA photographer documenting the revival, an unexpected relationship develops between the two women that challenges the societal norms of the time.

A chorus of women sing Southern hymns and speak biblical text to give Ruth a means of expressing the feelings she does not know nor dare to name. When the revival participants grow suspicious of the relationship, Ruth must choose between Iris and the community in which she was raised.

For this world premiere production by Found Stages Theatre, Neeley and I knew we wanted to give the audience the full sense of being at an outdoor tent revival. The play's story – like the beauty of the outdoors – is a timeless one. It’s a story about embracing every aspect of self-identity and celebrating the people in our lives who help us see ourselves for everything that we are. It’s a story that challenges the notion that anyone can be put inside a clearly marked box.

In order to tell a story so big and yet so simple, we needed a space to match. Dunwoody Nature Center offered the perfect natural space for the story, and after several discussions and new drafts, Beulah Creek was specifically rewritten with that natural space in mind. As the characters solved the dilemma at hand in real time, the audience journeyed with them to four different locations, guided by a chorus of women through song and candlelight. Dessert of cornbread and milk was shared with the audience in the final scene. Our goal became to offer an opportunity for people to get together in person and celebrate the community created through shared experiences.

Found Stages Theatre, September 2014 at Dunwoody Nature Center

Written by Neeley GossettDirected by Nichole PalmiettoMusic Direction by Julie PuckettStage Managed by Kara ProcellAssistant Stage Managed by Kayla ZinkeLighting Design by Tara O'NeillCostume Design by Alyssa JacksonDramaturgy by Addae Afura MoonPublic Relations by Annie Harrison ElliottMarketing by Chelsea Steverson

Cast: Daryl Fazio, Mary Saville, Julie Puckett, Liz Schad, Rachel Frawley and Elin Rose Hill

Photos by KVC Photography

Empty Rooms follows Jennifer, a brilliant developer, as she prepares for a conference that could make or break the tech company she’s spent her entire career supporting. But between Sara, the stay-at-home mom re-entering the workforce; Natalie, the whip-smart but underutilized (and unpaid) Millennial intern; Frank, the coder-turned-admin in over his head; Margot, the older and wiser PR specialist called in to reverse an inevitable crisis; and one-sided convos with Ada Lovelace, the world's first (and long-dead) computer programmer, Jennifer has her work cut out for her. 

This smart and relatable comedy explores the obstacles to women in tech as Jennifer seeks to assert herself, maintain the credit for her own work, and learn to encourage the other women in her company.

Found Stages’ 2017 production of Empty Rooms toured to actual tech offices throughout metro Atlanta, as well as to co-working spaces and universities. Each performance was unique, as the play adapted to the existing space configuration, furniture, lighting and audience seating of each of the seven host venues.

Directed by Nichole Palmietto

Written by Annie Harrison Elliott

Cast: Candace Mabry, Mary Russell, Jin Jo, Jeffery Zwartjes, Holly Stevenson

Photos by: Paula Harding and Nichole Palmietto

June, Waverly, Rose and Lena are throwing a house party to share with guests their mothers' favorite pastime, Mahjong. In this immersive experience inspired by Amy Tan's "The Joy Luck Club," three audience members at a time sat with one of the book's characters, who taught them to play Mahjong while sharing a memory about her mother. Refreshments of green tea and butter cookies were also shared in this rotating experience that lasted approximately 30 minutes.

Presented as part of 7 Stages Theatre’s “Curious (Literary) Encounters,” sponsored by the NEA’s Big Read

Adapted from the novel by Amy Tan

Scripts by Annie Harrison Elliott (“Rules of the Game”), Daryl Fazio (“The Voice from the Wall”), Neeley Gossett (“Two Kinds”) and Addae Moon (“Half and Half”)

Directed by Nichole Palmietto

Production Managed by Kara Procell

Assistant Stage Managed by Teresa Bayo

Cast: Madeleine Harris, Crystal Le, Yen Nguyen, Zany Pohlel and Michelle Pokopac

Photos by Chelsea Steverson

In this intimate, black box production of The Last Five Years, Jamie and Cathy stayed on stage throughout the show, each experiencing life within the confines of their own timeline but seen and misunderstood by their partner. The ways in which love can be taken for granted were readily on display for the audience, which surrounded the action on three sides. A single, acoustic piano in plain view accompanied the production. After the show, audience members were invited to share in community, along with winter treats and drinks, with the cast and crew.

Hotlanta Thespian Love, December 2015

Written and Composed by Jason Robert Brown

Produced by Hannah Church & Emily Kleypas

Directed by Nichole Palmietto

Music Direction by Allison Canterbury Lingenfelter

Choreographed by Julissa Sabino

Stage Managed by Hannah Lake Chatham

Scenic and Lighting Design by Josh Samors

Props by Nicky Khor

Cast: Jeremiah Parker Hobbs and Hannah Church

Photos by Hannah Lake Photography

“The Yellow Wallpaper was not intended to drive people crazy, but to save people from being driven crazy, and it worked.”

 It is 1891, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a writer, has just finished a treatment called the "rest cure." Imagine lying in bed for eight weeks in complete isolation, with only your thoughts to guide you. This cure, which in 2016 looks more like solitary confinement, was the advanced medical care of its time. But now that the treatment is over, and Charlotte’s mind is at its breaking point, her doctor S. Weir Mitchell has given a new prognosis: she can never write again if she intends to get better. What will Charlotte decide? This is a classic story with a new haunting musical twist!

Staged Reading
Part of the Atlanta Musical Theatre Festival 2016
Hosted at Actor's Express Theatre

Adapted from the short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Script by Hannah Church
Music and Lyrics by Julia Appleton
Directed by Nichole Palmietto
Music Directed by Alli Lingenfelter

Cast: Sarah Newby Halicks, Julissa Sabino, Hannah Church, Josh Brooks and Allison Dixon

Photos by Casey Gardner

The Fairy Hoax, a magical musical for the whole family, is a coming-of- age story about Dulcie, a thirteen-year-old girl in Yorkshire, England, who fakes photographs of fairies in order to save her relationship with her emotionally distant mother, a relationship which has been torn apart by the First World War. With the help of Francis, an eccentric male friend, Dulcie manages to create a series of photographs that not only cheer up her mother, but also enchant a nation. With the help of The Strand magazine, the children's celebrity around the faked photos goes too far as Dulcie’s life becomes unbearable watching her mother go “round the bend.” And when she feels betrayed by her friend, Dulcie decides to stop all talk of fairies and give up her celebrity status in order to preserve what’s left of her family and her dignity.

Staged Reading
Part of the Atlanta Musical Theatre Festival 2018
Hosted at Out Front Theatre

Inspired by The Cottingley Fairy Hoax

Book & Lyrics by Tom Diggs
Music by Jay D'Amico
Directed by Nichole Palmietto
Music Directed by Cristina Dinella
Stage Managed by Kayla Zinke

Cast: Brandy Bell, Truman Griffin, Lamont J. Hill, Mary Saville, David Wells

Photos by Casey Gardner

The Atlanta PodPlays is a series of walking audio stories that take place throughout Little Five Points. Rather than watching a live performance, you will use earbuds/headphones to listen to the plays on your smartphone as you walk through the neighborhood.

These PodPlays are written specifically for locations in Little Five Points and a narrator will direct you to walk to different places as you listen to the play. This is both an immersive and imminent experience, in which you will hear an audio play and physically explore your surroundings.

Jonas, an attorney, returns home to Tennessee to find his dead father's missing D'Angelico guitar. The search leads to his younger brother Palace, who’s incarcerated for murder. Jonas learns Palace might be innocent. But is it too late to save him.

I love you. They are three words that everyone wants to hear and that everyone is afraid to say. They are three words that are never said in this play. When I first agreed to direct D’Angelico, I was nervous because it meant being a woman in charge of a masculine play, written by a man, with all male characters. But, the fact of those three words is fact regardless of gender. Perhaps this collective fear of three (in all other respects harmless) words is really just a fear of needing people. We hate admitting that we need people. It seems to point a giant floodlight right at the thing we’ve been trying to hide our whole lives – our vulnerability. Yet, being needed is the greatest feeling in the world. Jonas and Palace need each other. Jonas and Palace never say I love you. After spending their whole lives hiding every trace of vulnerability, they’ve found themselves in the same predicament as everyone else. This play is not about three guys getting on stage to show us what it’s like to be men. This play is about three words and what could happen if you never hear them said.

Written by Gabriel Dean

Directed by Nichole Palmietto

Stage Managed by Kristen Vestlie

Scenic & Lighting Design by Jennifer Singletary

Sound Design by Tom Horan

Costume Design by Bich Vu

Fight Choregraphy by Travis Dean

Cast: Will Brittain, Gabriel Jason Dean and Weldon Phillips

Britton Buttrill's Scratching follows the lives of four individuals drawn together by love, art and drugs. 

Like any first production of a new play, Scratching was a process of discovery. What originally began as a play about ideas set in a fully realized, Southern apartment grew into a story about real people struggling for balance between ideals and reality. What began as a story about a single protagonist fighting to hold onto his moral beliefs grew into a play about four lonely people grasping at straws for happiness. They always seem to choose the short straw. Sometimes life is that way. Scratching is a story for anyone who has ever felt alone, for anyone who has ever failed and for anyone who has ever tried to put good into the world only to be thwarted at every turn. Sometimes life can feel like you’re just scratching at the surface, digging for something deeper. The question is, when you finally find what’s underneath, will it be what you wanted?

Pinch 'n' Ouch Theatre, August 2013

Written by Britton Buttrill
Directed by Nichole Palmietto
Stage Managed by Liz Schad
Choreography by Julissa Sabino
Fight Choreography by Barrett Doyle and Bennett Walton
Scenic and Tattoo Designs by Chelsea Steverson
Lighting Design by Kevin Frazier
Sound Engineering by Bennett Walton
Costume Design by Cameron Dix
Producing Artistic Director: Grant McGowen

Cast: Barrett Doyle, Julissa Sabino, Bennett Walton and Stephanie Friedman

Photos by Grant McGowen

For this production of Jane Martin's play that I directed for The Weird Sisters Theatre Project, we invited the audience to be true voyeurs. Each audience member entered the theatre through Ata's front door, into her living room world of pizza boxes and Dr. Pepper cans.

This desperately funny story of two unlikely friends proved that sometimes everybody gets stuck. Sometimes you need a friend. And it’s a lucky thing – when you find yourself short on friends – when the universe decides to send one in through your open window. And when that happens, you might just find that you’re a different person than you thought you were. Your friend may not put a gun in your hand and lead you to a life of crime and unbridled sexuality (if only!). But when the universe grants you an unlikely friend, keep them close!

The Weird Sisters Theatre Project, June 2014 at Aurora Theatre

Written by Jane Martin
Directed by Nichole Palmietto
Stage Managed by Catie Councell
Assistant Directed by Annie York
Fight Choreography by Matt Felten
Scenic Design by Joel King
Lighting Design by James Helms
Sound Design by Daniel Terry
Costume Design by Kelly Criss
Dramaturgy by Kathy Janich
Marketing by Kristin Livingston and Katie Causey

Cast: Sarah Elizabeth Wallis, Tiffany Porter, Vinnie Mascola and Matt Felten

Photos by KVC Photography